Intro

The most impressive of High Tatra nunatak crags culminating in a sharp ridge separating Svistova and Litvorova valleys, eastern branches of Bielovodska valley system.

Hruba Veza ridge above Bielovodska Valley(on the right)

Hruba Veza is an isolated, prominent crag separating 2 lateral valleys of Bielovodska valley: Svistova in the north and Litovorova on its southern side. The deep pass of Litvorova Prehyba separates the massif via extensive postglacial plateau from Velicky Stit peak located in the main Tatra ridge rising here towards highest Tatra peaks of Zadny Gerlach(2640) and Gerlach(2654).

There are no marked tourist trails leading to Hruba Veza summit that is accessible for equppied climbers only. The most interesting challenge for climbers is its south face falling 200 meters down to Litvorova valley.

Hruba Veza summit is an absolutely great viewpoint to the whole monumental surrounding of peaks dominating above Bielovodska valley's highest floors, but in regard of its distant location to places where one can stay overnight and hard access via easiest summit route, it is being climbed less than occassionally.

Hruba Veza (2086)

Hruba Veza is a peak in a NW lateral ridge branching from the main Tatra ridge in Velicky Stit peak(arguable issue) and separated to the one with pass of Litovorova Prehyba.
The sharp looking crag is double-summited and its SE summit is considered as the main one, higher to less prominent NW one and rises 2086 meters asl.
Towards NW direction the peak sends long ridge where some less prominent formations are located. In Hruby Rog(PL) point the ridge branches to the South and SW directly above Bielovodska valley.

Hruba Veza from Vychodna Vysoka by Gorzi

Getting There

Towards Hruba from Tazka valley

You can visit the area both from Slovak and Polish side of the mountains.

The key thing when planning a stay in Slovak High Tatra is to get to Poprad - major city in the area with very good communication links with the rest of the country, from there you should go to one of close High Tatra resorts : Stary Smokovec or Strbske Pleso for example.

You can find accomodation anywhere in the area, thanks to an electric train line You will find yourself everywhere You want at the right time !

On Polish side as always one must get to Zakopane first, very well developed communication with the whole Poland, especially nearby Cracow City (100 km).
Everyone who'd like to visit Hruba Veza peak and Bielovodska Valley area should take one of many buses or minibuses going in the direction to Palenica Bialczanska("Morskie Oko") and get off one stop before the final one at Lysa Polana - former Polish/Slovak road bordercrossing point(no border control nowadays).
A few steps from there blue marked trail to Belovodska Valley starts its run.

Routes Overview

There are no marked trails to Hruba Veza summit, the only marked tourist route, the blue one, cross the foothills of the massif along neighbouring Litvorova valley, leading from Lysa Polana through Bielovodska valley to Prielom Pass with green branching to the nearby pass of Polsky Hreben.

Alpine climbing in the area can be practiced in compliance with National Park rules.

The easiest of summit routes on Hruba Veza is the short one that led three Polish climbers to conquer the virgin peak in 1906, so that's the name of the crucial formation on it Komin Kordysa(Kordys's Chimney) which commemorates one of these brave people: Roman Kordys.
The difficulty of the route is estimated at UIAA I, however due to serious exposition and configuration of rocky terrain the climb should be undertaken with full equipment.

Komin Kordysa

Hruba Veza - Map

Tatry Wysokie (High Tatra) map, in scale 1:25 000, description in 6 languages, ISBN 83-87873-26-8, available in all shops and book stores in Zakopane . Here you can check the net version

Red Tape

From 1.11 to 15.06 year by year all marked routes in TANAP(the whole Slovak side of Tatras) are being closed for tourists
(besides the routes leading to mountain chalets).

On 21.12.2007 Slovakia along with Poland signed Schengen Agreement and accessed to "open borders" Schengen Area, however one must remember that National Park regulations prohibiting crossing the border beside marked trails in the whole area remain in force.

Mountain Conditions

Nunataks in High Tatras

Long time has passed since the last High Tatra glaciers disappered leaving the mountain area totally transformed. The main type of landscape that we meet there today is postglacial mountain relief with all its characteristic forms like U-shape valleys, moraines, huge fields of loose rocks and many many others.

One of the most interesting remnants after the glacial era in the mountains are former Nunataks.

A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within (or at the edge of) an ice field or glacier. The term is typically used in areas where a permanent ice sheet is present. Nunataks present readily identifiable landmark reference points in glaciers or ice caps and are often named. Nunataks are generally angular and jagged because of freeze-thaw weathering, and can be seen to contrast strongly with the softer contours of the glacially eroded land below if the glacier retreats.

As the encyclopedic definition states further the word is of Greenlandic origin and has been used in western European languages since the 1870s.

In High Tatras there remained at least a few former Nunataks that stand nowadays as picturesque, isolated crags in the middle of the valleys. These are for example Strelecka Veza in Velka Studena valley, famous Kostolik crag high in Batizovska valley and Hruba Veza presented here as the most massive and impressive nunatak crag of Tatra mountains.

Strelecka Veza

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Kostolik by EQUUS

Camping

Lots of accomodation possibilities of different standard and price on both sides of Tatra Mountains.

The nearest place on the north side of the mountains where You can find a room to rent is a village of Tatranska Javorina (4 km by the road from the border in Lysa Polana) but the local choice of accomodation offer is very narrow, just a few private houses and one, expensive hotel.

In summer months, there is a camping place, deep in Bielovodska valley, at Polana pod Vysokou open. Planning to camp there, one should be a member of a mountain club and pay the fee for staying there in the woodsman house at the entry to the valley first.

Camping in Tatra National Park beside a few designated places is strictly forbidden!